Well Hooray For FUBAR Gene Pools

The sensible members of my family (the Red State Liberal Senior Citizen Brigade) have wisely chosen not to pass on to me an email being circulated by one of our wingnut cousins which indulged the usual ignorant canards about how the welfare state has created the rapists, robbers and rioters of New Orleans, as well as some novel insights from a “source” into Katrina being God’s judgment against a planned “decadence day” on the part of the city featuring gays and nudes.

It’s called Mardi Gras, you morons.

(Note: protected static also lets us know about Gay Pride “Southern Decadence Day” that was also set for Aug 5 – Sept. 31. Damn. I hate it when reality steps on a good line.)

The other day the always astute Fallenmonk was talking in the comments about poor people in the South who were the products of the worst public education systems in the country, who left school early before the faculty for critical thinking had developed, and how they are frequently easy prey to the angry diatribes, overly simplistic world-view and emotional manipulation of the right. And I thought at the time, “bingo, that’s my cousin.”

But knowing my cousin as I do, I think there is something more going on here than just suicidal kool-aid gorging. My cousin is actually quite progressive in some areas — she has a number of gay and lesbian friends whose lifestyles she defends (by which you would be right to infer that there are definitely worse bigots in my family), so I can only take word of this email to mean that she just can’t admit she was wrong.

Okay, it’s a family trait. It’s also a strong Southern trait. And I think it’s rampant right now within “the party of personal responsibility,” who thoroughly believe in holding other people to standards they have no intention of living up to themselves.

Fortunately, my cousin is not alone. Much like her, Preznit Never Responsible cannot admit he was wrong as he throws Michael Brown under the wheels, so Brown is just being shuffled into background bureaucracy and Vice Admiral Allen heads to Fox News as Chief Apologist and Bush Fluffer.

I’m sure it will be viewed by die-hard BushCo. supporters as a shining example of Intelligent Design. They might be right.

Jane Hamsher

Jane is the founder of Firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect. She’s the author of the best selling book Killer Instinct and has produced such films Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight. She lives in Washington DC.Subscribe in a reader